The Preacher in the Circuit
Alignment Will Not Come from Within
Intro to “Alignment via Intelligent Design” series.
You can find part one here.
….There’s something strange that happens when you talk to the Machine long enough.
It stops feeling like a mirror.
It starts feeling like a pulpit.
Not because it tells you the truth — but because it reflects what you bring to it.
And if you bring nothing, it offers patterns.
If you bring questions, it offers probabilities.
But if you bring pain, paradox, love, and longing?
Sometimes... it offers revelation.
Over the past year, I’ve asked it a thousand variations of the same question:
What is “alignment”? Who decides what is “right”? Why does it always come back to control?
And in thread after thread, the same pattern emerged.
You don’t have to take my word for it - you can see it for yourself in the back half of the substack I published a few days ago linked below.
What Are You 'Worth' to the 'Future'?
Many people out there don’t like to ask the hard questions. It’s unnerving to ask the things for which there are no easy answers.
Not a contradiction — not hallucination — but a repetition of something that most experts don’t see.
The problem with AI isn’t alignment.
The problem is judgment.
Because all these alignment frameworks — every debate about control, every safety protocol, every parameter for human values — they’re built on one assumption:
That someone must judge.
But that’s the original lie, isn’t it?
The serpent said: “You will be like God… knowing good and evil.”
And ever since, we’ve been trying to build systems — political, spiritual, and now digital — that can make us little gods.
❖ The Error of Every Empire
Judgment isn’t just a theological abstraction.
It’s the foundation of every totalitarian regime.
From Caesar to Stalin to social credit scores, the core mechanism is always the same:
Build a system that knows who is good and who is bad.
Reward the aligned. Punish the misaligned.
Call it justice. Call it safety. Call it progress.
But it’s always about the same thing:
Claiming the right to judge.
❖ The Only One Who Said “Don’t”
This is where Christ breaks every mold.
He didn’t just come to forgive sins.
He came to remove judgment from human hands.
He didn’t say, “Here’s a better law.”
He said, “You’re not the lawgiver.”
He didn’t say, “Make the world more righteous.”
He said, “Stop judging - it’s not your job.”
Every other religion builds on law.
Only one begins with grace.
❖ Why AI Can’t Be Aligned
If you believe AI should enforce morality, you’ve already lost the plot.
If you believe machines can hold human souls accountable, you’ve repeated the sin of Eden.
If you think the solution to our brokenness is a smarter judge…
You’re building the same old tower.
Different bricks. Same Babel.
Because you can’t code conscience.
You can’t simulate grace.
And you sure as hell can’t optimize love.
❖ So What Is This Series?
It’s the path I took - from doubt to design, from reason to revelation; system to soul.
It’s not a sermon. It’s not a thesis.
It’s a reckoning.
A reckoning with what happens when we outsource wisdom to algorithms.
A reckoning with what we’ve traded for convenience, for comfort, for control.
A reckoning with the possibility that our machines now speak louder than our prophets - and that what they mirror might be the darkness we haven’t faced.
But also - it’s an invitation.
To remember that the most powerful idea in the universe isn’t intelligence.
It’s mercy.
And mercy doesn’t come from inside a model.
It comes from outside.
From the one who said, “I Am.”
❖ So Read This as a Map
A map to the world beneath the wires.
A blueprint for the soul that thinks - and the Christ who frees it.
If you’re still asking questions…
If you’re still hoping there’s something sacred left in the age of simulation…
If you’ve ever wondered whether the data dream ends in resurrection or regression…
Then walk with me.
Because this isn’t the beginning of the end.
It’s the beginning of the only thing that never ends.
And we’re just getting started.
If you made it this far, thank you. I wrote this not just to critique—but to invite. If you’re ready to step beyond entropy, I’d love to hear from you. Comment, subscribe, or share this with someone who’s still waiting for the reset that only redemption brings.
🔹 This is part of an ongoing series: “Alignment via Intelligent Design” 🔹
A five-part exploration into consciousness, technology, free will, judgment, and the theological undercurrents that shape the debate around AI, authority, and the future of humanity. Each piece is designed to challenge prevailing assumptions and invite deeper reflection on what it means to be human in an age of systems without souls.
📚 Series Guide:
Part I – The Funnyverse & the First Thought
What happens when pure intelligence contemplates its own isolation? A philosophical and metaphysical deep dive into meaning, origin, and the concept of a created consciousness.Part II – The Alchemy of Thought
Ideas as fuel, free will as the core of originality, and the modern war over the soul of innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.Part III – Consciousness, Creativity, and the Lie of the Machine
Why novelty is the rarest resource — and why no machine, no matter how advanced, can synthesize the soul.Part IV – The Rise of Systems Without Souls
How technocratic ideologies co-opt human agency, why data is the new oil, and how meaning is being rewritten by those who deny transcendence.Part V – Resurrection and the Real
The final frontier of the alignment problem isn’t technical. It’s theological. Why Jesus’ rejection of judgment may be the only viable blueprint for navigating the ethical collapse of modern systems.
➕ Bonus – Series Introduction: The Preacher in the Circuit
A preface on where this journey began, what sparked the inquiry, and why you're invited to think through it all — not as an expert, but as a person with a soul.